Designing data processors for use in mobile stations is inherently difficult due to the tradeoffs that must be made between competing considerations, including energy efficiency, computation power, and flexibility. Most current multi-standard wireless devices comprise blocks of independent ASIC devices, each of which is related to a different wireless standard. However, this approach results in increased die size, increased power consumption, and lack of flexibility. As an alternative, SDR devices may be used.
SDR devices use reconfigurable hardware that may be programmed over the air to operate under different wireless protocols. For example, an SDR transceiver in a wireless laptop computer may be configured by a first software load to operate in a CDMA2000 wireless network and may be reconfigured by a second software load to operate in an HSDPA wireless network. SDR systems minimize cost and power consumption, while maximizing flexibility, thereby providing an optimized combination of scalability and modularity.
In order to test an SDR receiver operating under different standards, currently-available testing methods use a different set of test equipment for each standard to be tested. However, each set of test equipment is expensive. In addition, using these methods, an SDR receiver's ability to switch quickly between standards may not be tested easily. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved method of testing an SDR receiver operating under different standards.